Essay:Duce's political and policy views

A list of policy ideas and political views supported by DuceMoosolini. Based on TheUmbilicalCordGuy's userpage (with some ideas taken verbatim). Subject to change.

Agriculture policy

• End the ethanol fuel mandate.
• GMOs are good.
• Support local farms over factory mega-farms.
• Bust agribusiness giants.

Civil liberties

Abortion

• I'm in the "safe, legal, and rare" camp when it comes to abortion.
• Pass a law federally defending reproductive rights nationwide. I'd like to see an Amendment too, but I know that ain't happening.
• End the global gag rule.
• Ban abortion after the third trimester unless critically necessary; it's not like third trimester abortions even really happen anyways.
• Increase funding to Planned Parenthood.
• Allow private health plans to cover abortion and contraceptives nationwide.
• End the Hyde Amendment and the Helms Amendment.
• Free-at-access abortion is a bridge too far for me.

Speech

• I take a broad interpretation of what should be considered free speech.

Protest

• Save for specific circumstances involving emergency services or another party's rights, there should be no geographical limitations on where people can protest.
• Non-violent protests should never be met with violence or arrests by police. Protest organizers deliberately inciting violence prosecuted and given a fair trial.
• It should never be illegal to use profanity against institutions or persons during protest.
• All violence by police directed at protesters must be investigated by an independent party and prosecuted if necessary.
• Flag burning/desecration should always be legal.

Journalism

• Freedom of press is an essential value.
• Pass a federal shield law to protect reporters from being compelled to reveal sources.
• Ban federal and state governments from spying on journalists.

Expression

• "Obscenity" laws should be repealed.
• Unless actively advocating for violence, books should never be banned or barred from being published.
• Books should never be banned from classrooms unless they are legit porn/erotica.
• Revenge porn and child porn must be illegal and criminalized, both for production and possession.

Surveillance

• End unwarranted domestic surveillance.
• Abolish the NSA.
• Gut the bloated and ineffective TSA; implement modified Israel-style security plans instead.
• Do not require tech companies to create "backdoors" into their products.
• Do not allow cops to search phones or computers without a warrant.
• Do not allow cops to use thermal imaging without a warrant.
• Pardon Snowden and other idealistic whistleblowers.

Consumer privacy

• Require all companies to notify people if their data is breached or exposed to unauthorized parties.
• Require companies to obtain permission before selling or sharing someone's data.
• Ban companies from discriminating against people who exercise their privacy rights.
• Require that companies only save the minimum data necessary to provide their services.
• Create a consumer privacy enforcement agency like the one California has.
• Allow consumers to sue companies over data breaches.
• Allow consumers to sue companies over privacy violations.

Other

• Legalize prostitution and all sex work between consenting adults.
• Allow voluntary euthanasia for the terminally ill.
• Allow state contractors to boycott whomever they like.

Criminal justice policy

Capital punishment

• I'm not against executing really heinous offenders, but too many innocent people end up on death row.
• So, abolish.
• Instead, place heinous and dangerous offenders in harsh supermax facilities like the ADX Florence.

Cops

• Allow civilian recording of on-duty police officers at any time.
• Remove qualified immunity for police officers.
• Establish civilian review boards for all police departments.
• Ban stop-and-frisk.
• Ban racial profiling.
• Ban no-knock raids.
• Use special prosecutors in police misconduct investigations.
• Mandate increased de-escalation training for all police departments.
• Create a national database of officers responsible for misconduct and ban other departments from hiring them.
• Remove military equipment from police departments.

Prisons

• End cash bail.
• End mandatory minimums and drastically reduce sentences for most non violent offenses.
• End non-unanimous jury convictions nationwide.
• End the use of private prisons; transfer all prisoners to federal and state facilities once new ones are built to accommodate them.
• Build more prisons to end overcrowding. Refurbish existing prisons to ensure humane living standards.
• Ban the practice of making prisoners pay for amenities.
• Respect religious rights of prisoners: allow access to religious texts and clergy.

Drug policy

• Decriminalize marijuana for personal use on the federal level.
• Pardon people for nonviolent drug offenses.
• Provide mandatory counseling and addiction services instead of sending people to prison.

Enemy combatants

• Never ever summarily execute captured enemy combatants.
• Ban the use of torture against any captured enemy.
• Do not send captured enemies to other countries to circumvent torture bans.
• Mandate that all enemy combatants be treated humanely, regardless of whether they are lawful or unlawful.

Other

• End civil asset forfeiture.
• Decriminalize homelessness.

Economic and financial policy

Overall

• I am a staunch anti-communist.
• I support a market economy in which federal and local governments provide extensive welfare safety nets and control certain industries.

Welfare policy

• Keep Social Security alive.
• Expand food stamp eligibility.
• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Corporate finance

• Pass a 2% tax on corporate stock buybacks.
• Require corporations to compile and release reports disclosing:
  • Total annual revenue and percentage kept as profit,
  • Government contracts and payments,
  • Tax breaks,
  • Total employee compensation as percentage of revenue,
  • Total executive compensation as percentage of revenue,
  • CEO compensation as percentage of revenue,
  • Total non-executive/employee shareholder compensation as percentage of revenue.

Personal finance

• Establish a free, publicly-run credit reporting agency.
• Implement the Sanders/Cortez plan to cap credit card interest at 15%, but allow interest rates to rise for 18 months if necessary.
• Reestablish the Postal Savings System to provide public, low-cost banking services through Post Offices.
• Discharge or substantially reduce all debts during bankruptcy proceedings. No more BS permanent debt for student loans and mortgages.

Taxation

• Create a free public online tax filing and preparation system with maximum returns and an option for automatic tax filing.
• Zero income tax below $30,000
• Establish a wealth tax like the one proposed by Senator Warren.
  • 2% wealth tax on households with net worths of $50 million and over.
  • 3% wealth tax on households with net worths of $1 billion and over.
• Hike the estate tax on millionaires and billionaires in accordance with Senator Sanders' plan.
  • 45% between $3.5 and $10 million.
  • 50% between $10 million and $50 million.
  • 55% between $50 million and $1 billion.
  • 77% for $1 billion and over.
• Increase capital gains and corporate taxes.
  • Set maximum capital gains tax rate back to 40%.
  • Set maximum corporate tax rate back to 52%.
• Don’t tax lawsuit winnings.

Currency

• Pass a law to remove the penny from circulation and direct the US Mint to stop making them.
• Make it legal for businesses and individuals to melt down pennies for their metals or sell them off to businesses that will.

Education policy

• Fund universal preschool.

K-12

• Stop relying on property taxes to fund public schools.
• Provide tutors for under-performing students.
• Provide free breakfast and lunch for students at all income levels and cancel student lunch debt. End "lunch shaming".
• Move to a 9-to-5 school day to match parents' schedules.
• Pay teachers properly, like at least $50k a year.
• Expand teacher residency programs to give new educators experience teaching under a mentor.
• Every school should have a counselor, nurse, and social worker.
• Provide personal computers for students to use during the school year.
• End standardized testing.
• Increase sex education.
• Stop subsidizing private schools.
• Make sure that evolution, vaccines, and climate science are taught in all schools.
• Decriminalize truancy.
• These courses should be required by the end of high school:
  • Personal economics.
  • Macroeconomics.
  • Civics and government.
  • Comparative government.
  • Computers/typing.
  • International issues and relations.

Higher education

• Tuition-free public colleges and trade schools.
• Cancel student loan debt for people going to public colleges.
• Increase college mentorship programs.

Environmental policy

• Institute a carbon tax on businesses.
• Require coal plants to transition to natural gas.
• Fund carbon sequestration.
• Fund ocean trash clean-up efforts.
• Fund the creation of wave-energy-conversion power plants.
• Fund the EPA.
• Always publish climate science data.
• Build more nuclear power plants.
• Fund the creation of wind farms throughout the Midwest.

Election policy

Voters

• Institute automatic voter registration nationwide.
• I'm honestly fine with voter ID laws.
• Offer mail ballots to all voters.
• Offer early in-person voting to all voters in the week prior to Election Day.

Procedures

• Election Day should be a federal holiday.
• Have congressional district lines drawn by a nonpartisan entity.
• Abolish the Electoral College; elect presidents with a ranked-choice system.
• Improve elections cybersecurity.
• Invalidate state laws that discourage or prevent recounts. Every voter has the right to have their vote counted.
• Pass laws to prevent state legislatures from interfering with the rightful selection of Electors.

Eligibility

• People who've been a naturalized citizen for, say, 20 years should be eligible for the presidency.
• A past crime should not invalidate people from running for office as long as it was not a felony, violent, financial, or sexual crime.
• Citizens naturalized at birth should be unequivocally announced as eligible for the presidency.

Term limits

• Limit Senators to two terms and Representatives to six terms.

Foreign policy

• Focus on soft power. Countries are more likely to listen to their friends and trading partners. No war or threats needed.
• Increase staffing for the State Department and create diplomatic training programs and scholarships for university students.
• Close foreign US military bases except for the ones in East Asia and Eastern Europe. Basically, if the base is not protecting a threatened ally, then it should go.
• Join the International Criminal Court.

Africa

• Recognize Somaliland as an independent state.
• Cut off Uganda from security aid.

Asia

• Strengthen US-Indian relations, especially when it comes to economics and countering China.
• Strengthen economic and strategic ties with Vietnam.
• Announce America's consent for limited Japanese rearmament against China.
• Increase sanctions on Burma for its unacceptable persecution of the Rohingya and military coup.

Europe

• Continue aid to Ukraine with the objective of returning to pre-2014 borders.
• Negotiate a nice trade deal with the British post-Brexit.
• Increase energy exports to Europe.

Middle East

• End the supply of lethal aid and monetary aid to Israel, but keep providing humanitarian supplies.
  • Let US citizens practice BDS against Israel, as is their right.
• End support for the Saudi War in Yemen and start distancing ourselves from them in general.
  • In fact, ban the sale of weapons to the Saudis.
• Strengthen strategic ties with Jordan, especially in the realm of counter-terrorism.
• Negotiate a new Iran Deal.

North America

• Normalize relations with Cuba, with the exception of arms sales.
• Invest heavily in Mexico's and Central America's economies and infrastructure to help them modernize and reduce poverty.
• Strengthen economic and strategic ties with Brazil.
• Continue opposition to Maduro's criminal government in Venezuela.

Foreign affairs

• Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan deserve to remain independent.
• Kosovo should be independent.
• With the things the way they are, it might be for the best if Scotland leaves the UK and Ireland reunifies.
• Focus on building trust and ending violence between Israel and Palestine. Eventual two-state or perhaps Bosnia-style one state solution in the far future.
• Gibraltar and the Falklands should stay British.
• The Kurdish people deserve their own nation-state.
• Grant Kashmir pseudo-independence as a UN-mandated buffer state between India and Pakistan.
• Indonesia should probably dissolve.
• Outer Manchuria is rightful Chinese clay and Russia should give it back.
• Poland and Hungary are going to shit.
• Turkey is going to shit.
• Chile replacing its constitution is a great thing and I hope it goes well for them.

Government

• Offer statehood and representation to DC, Guam, American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.
• Implement the Wyoming Rule: representative-to-population ratio would be that of the smallest state, which is currently Wyoming.
• Increase Supreme Court to 13 seats in accordance with the number of federal appeals circuits.
• Grant all Indigenous Nations a non-voting delegate seat in the House of Representatives.
• Automatically remove legislators who fail to attend more than 50% of votes in a year.
• Implement open government, in which all government documents and proceedings are accessible to the public.
• Ban monetary lobbying
• Bring back the 60-vote rule for Supreme Court Justice confirmations.
• Remove references to God from currency, federal buildings, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Abolish the National Day of Prayer.

Gun policy

• To be clear, I am pro-2A but I do believe there are common-sense policies which can help keep people safe while not infringing on constitutional rights.
• Mandate that all gun owners be required to have a federal license which includes technical competency and mental health standards.
• Mandate universal background checks for gun purchases.
• Mandate required waiting periods for gun purchases of at least one week.
• Pass gun-violence restraining order statutes nationwide.
• Prosecute people whose guns are used in mass killings if it's found they did not secure them.
• Ban high-capacity clips for civilians.
• Mandate that all gun sales be registered with the government.
• Mandate that gun owners purchase liability insurance.
• Implement an optional federal buyback program for firearms. Prices should be attractive.
• Encourage responsible gun ownership for minority groups like blacks, Latinos, and Muslims.

Health policy

Health issues

• Crack down on the alternative medicine industry.

Healthcare industry

• Enact Medicare for All.
• Medicaid is good for the economy; expand eligibility.
• Crack down on copyright abuse by pharma corporations.
• Ban prescription drug advertising.
• Mandate that drug companies use a cost-based pricing system instead of manipulating customers.
• Allow the government to negotiate drug prices.
• The government should control pricing for crucial rare drugs.
• Ensure adequate funding of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
• Expand medical school loan-forgiveness programs.
• Lower barriers to immigration for foreign-trained physicians and allow them to practice.
• Legalize and support telehealth and remote patient monitoring.

Immigration policy

• Abolish ICE.
• End family separation policies.
• Support private sponsorship of refugees.
• Incentivize foreign doctors and healthcare professionals to settle in the rural US.
• Establish a pathway to citizenship plan for non-criminal illegals.
• Remove limits on the number or "quality" of immigrants; only bar criminals from entry.
• In general, make it easier to legally become a US citizen.

Infrastructure policy

Transportation

• Fix the highways.
• Fix the inland waterways, dams, and canals.
• Increase incentives for cities to create public transportation systems.
• Build a high-speed rail system to connect the major US cities.

Telecommunications

• Fix the electrical infrastructure.
• Build fiber-optic internet cables to provide fiber internet access nationwide.
• Restore net neutrality.
• Create a public internet service provider.

Housing

• Build low-income housing.
• Provide incentives on the state and federal levels for communities which allow more residential constructions.

Labor policy

• Require businesses to publish their salary ranges for each position for all applicants.
• Require businesses to provide paid leave for full- and part-time employees during the birth of a child or sick/dead family member.
• Require businesses to pay salaried employees time-and-a-half for overtime hours. Required overtime hours should be more than 40 in a week and more than 8 in a day.
• Part-time and full-time hourly pay must be the same rate for the same work.
• All employees must have the right to request flexible working hours, with businesses required to explain any denials.
• All employees must be guaranteed a paid 30 minute lunch if they work more than 5 hours in a day. Employees must be fully relieved of duty.
• All employees must be guaranteed one paid 10 minute break every two hours. Employees must be fully relieved of duty.
• All employees must be guaranteed double pay on federal holidays.
• Full-time employees must be guaranteed two weeks of paid vacation per year after working at least 6 months.
• Require businesses to provide seating for employees who remain in one area for more than half of their shift (this means cashiers).

Unions

• Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
• Allow closed-shops and secondary strikes/boycotts.
• Crack down on union-busting.

Military policy

General (not generals)

• Raise the enlistment age to 25.
• Increase pay and benefits for our men and women in uniform.
• Drastically cut military spending by reducing ground forces and relying on air and naval forces as deterrents.
• Cut the budget even more in order to force the military to reform its own bloated bureaucracy.
• Never, ever, order the military to conduct an operation unless it has devised a clear and realistic strategy on how to both win and withdraw.

The Army

• The Army should be a mechanized/armored land-based hammer with few other roles beyond rear echelon support.
  • During peacetime, the Army should maintain generally maintain readiness but do little else.
  • The Army should not be an occupation force. It should be used to win defensive wars and then withdraw.
• Eliminate almost all Army bases overseas in favor of keeping them stateside. The Army should be the heavyweights we bring in to an ongoing conflict, not rapid response.
• Massed airborne forces seem to have only a niche utility nowadays and should be reduced.
• It's time to refocus the Army away from counterinsurgency tactics.
• Drastically cut down the Army Special Forces.
• Increase funding for the Army Corps of Engineers and let them get about repairing this nation's crumbling infrastructure.

The Navy

• The Navy is still essential for transporting military assets and waging war at sea. But its purpose should not be "power projection" by just sitting around.
  • That means ditching the "global presence" strategy. It has overstretched the Navy and failed to deter conflict.
• Carriers are no longer the queens of the seas, and they should be reduced but not eliminated.
  • This means cancelling future Ford-class carriers and designing a smaller alternative.
  • That also means scrapping many of the Nimitz carriers.
• For the surface, the Navy should instead focus on missile frigates and destroyers, which are harder to find and still have major firepower.
• Missile submarines are also a good asset and even harder to find than destroyers.
• The Navy must ensure that its seamen are well rested. Too many humiliating accidents have been caused by overwork.

The Marines

• General David H. Berger's Force Design 2030 plan is a good starting point for reforming the bloated and politcized Marines.
• The Marines should return to their old focus of smaller-scale amphibious landings. It should not be a second Army.
  • That means scrapping all but one or two of the Navy's flat-deck amphibious assault ships in favor of much smaller models.
  • That also means drastically cutting the Marines' air arm, which serves no unique purpose.
• The Marines should also cease their "global response force" objective. That means closing many overseas bases.

The Air Force

• The Air Force still serves an essential role, but many of its bases can be closed.
• The F-35 should be phased in.

War criminals

• Arrest all American war criminals and send them to be tried before the International Criminal Court.
• Allow soldiers abroad who misbehave to be tried by said foreign government.

Veterans and lobbying

• Increase funding for the VA Department.
• Ban military leaders from lobbying positions for at least 10 years after they retire.
• Force defense contractors to be transparent about what they're lobbying for and why.

Social policy

General

• Ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
• Replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the federal and state level.
• Black Lives Matter is good.
• Remove Confederate statues, replace with respectable Southerners like Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and Jimmy Carter. Heritage, not hate, right?

LGBT+

• Allow LGBT+ adoption.
• Ban conversion therapy.
• Provide an "other" option for gender on government documents.
• Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but do not exempt "small businesses".
• Disallow gay panic and trans panic legal defenses for any crimes.
• End the ban on trans people serving in the military.
• No trans bathroom bans.
• Add gender identity and sexual orientation to all non-discrimination legislation.
• None of that "parody marriage" bullshit.

Trade policy

• Pro-free trade in most cases.
• Ban weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
• Lift the trade and travel embargo on Cuba.